I live in MO, where we have ‘Puppy Factories’ which produce thousands of puppies a year. That is a ‘Puppy Mill’. But on a smaller scale?

I have seen breeders that have more then 2 breeds called a puppy mill, and they don’t even sell puppies. I see people who own over 20 in one breed called a puppy mill. Is someone who owns 25 dachshunds and has a litter every 2-3 years a puppy mill?

Someone who has 1, 3, or 10, or 100, or 1000 litters a year, are they a puppy mill? Does it matter how many breeds are involved? What if they have 5 breeds and have 1 litter per breed a year? Does it matter how many dogs they own? Where/what is the line? Does it matter what they do with the dogs? What if they enter them in competition and not sell them? What defines a ‘Puppy Mill’?

As to what I think you were asking, does that sound like a multi-breed breeder? Yup.

Are the dogs mis-treated or in bad shape? Who knows. That could be a breeder that has 50 dogs, has an extended family of 50 people, and each dog gets individual attention. Or it could be a one person operation and no dog gets any attention. There is no way of telling unless someone goes and looks.

I’m not saying there aren’t some really bad places out there for dogs, I am saying we don’t know what ‘Puppy Mill’ means to everyone.